Duke

Share

Aug 18, 2009

His eyelids are folded under. Every time he blinks, his remaining eyelashes scrape his eyes. Most of his hair is missing. His skin is red and swollen, bleeding in spots on his torso, legs and face. This photo is of Duke at TLAC after waiting for over a week for someone to come and get him.

In all of this pain, he was still one of the mellowest and gentlest dogs any of us had met. He ended up on the euthanasia list. Luckily, we found a foster and pulled him out Sunday afternoon. Check out how happy Duke was to jump into his new foster's car.

TLAC called his owner, who told them to euthanize him. Strangely, one of his owner's friends was at TLAC Sunday checking on him. He said that Duke was looking better than he had in years, with the care he had been receiving at TLAC to help him with his skin.

Dr. Jefferson examined Duke yesterday. He has entropion, which is when the eyelids roll inward. The eyelashes then rub against the eye with every blink, causing excruciating pain and infection if left untreated. The only treatment is surgery. She believes that his hair loss is from an allergy and she also found ear infections.

He started ear medicine, skin antibiotics, fatty acids, and a hypoallergenic diet yesterday. We hope to get him in for eye surgery and neuter next week. He is a HUGE sweetie. 93 lbs and thin! His head alone probably weighs 20 lbs! He is ridiculously adorable and reminds some of us of a little hippopotamus!

Duke's treatment will cost at least $1,000. Please help us raise the funds necessary to fix his eyelids and other problems. Any overages will go to the medical expenses of the hundreds of other dogs and cats we'll be pulling out this month who are just as needy. Medical expenses are by far our largest expense and are the #1 limiting factor in the number of pets we save.

While we have reached Duke's minimum goal, there are hundreds of other animals in our care right now that require treatment, surgery and medications. If you've come to our site to help Duke, please consider giving for the countless other animals who are equally deserving and who we simply aren't able to individually spotlight

This is another example of how pit bulls are treated cruelly by a handful of irresponsible owners. This is a sweet dog and he deserves better. Pit bulls continually get a bad rap for behavior that is ultimately created by abuse at the hands of a few owners, then are blamed on the rare occasion when one becomes aggressive. Most pit bulls stay just as sweet as Duke, but unfortunately, those stories are not reported in the media.

Duke has already settled well into his foster home. He gets along great with other dogs, but we're not sure about cats yet. His foster does have a cat, so we'll be finding out about that soon.

Thanks to Ed Lehmann for the first two photos and Duke's foster Jay for the second two.